Tuesday 28 June 2016
Pakistani-Ukrainian
Billionaire Muhammad Zahoor
Muhammad Zahoor (R) with Pakistani President, Mamnoon Hussain (L)
Kamaliya in her Ukranian national dress at home with her husband Mohammed Zahoor
(Over seas Pakistani)and their twins
A Pakistani born in
Karachi who went to study to Donetsk
in Ukraine is now a true billionaire. Muhammad Zahoor
arrived in Russia in 1974 to study engineering in Donetsk. After completing his degree he came
back to Pakistan and started working in the only steel mill in his home country
at that time (The Pakistan Steel, Karachi).
When Russia invaded
Afghanistan in 1979 Mr. Zahoor who had a Russian wife chose to leave
Pakistan. The Pakistani intelligence authorities suspected his wife to be a
Russian spy. Once in Russia Zahoor started to work as a businessman. He bought
cheap Russian steel and sold it on the international market for a profit. He
continued to do it till the collapse of the Soviet Union. By the time the
Soviet system collapsed Zahoor was so rich that he bought the very steel mill
where he had studied for his engineering degree.
From 1996 to 2008 the Zahoor
kept on buying and selling steel mills all across Russia. In 2008 he liquidated
all his assets especially the steel assets and turned out a neat profit of 1 billion dollars. It is a
proof of his business acumen that when he sold his steel business in 2008 it
was very successful but as soon as he sold his business the steel prices on the
international stock market tanked.
On the other hand he kept
on assembling a totally different kind of portfolio. Now he has a portfolio in
media, communication, hospitality and transport industries. Ukraine’s biggest
newspaper the Kiev post is
held by him. He has a residence in Dubai as well. Zahoor holds a British
passport as well. He divides his time between London, Dubai, Karachi and Kiev.
He is married and has two
children two twin daughters in fact. His wife is a very successful and
established singer in the UK. Her songs
regularly feature in the top 10 UK Billboard hits and in the top 10 pop/rock
lists all over Europe. Zahoor is making the Pakistani expat community proud
everywhere. It is truly an amazing story that a Pakistani student who went to
Russia on a scholarship to study engineering ended up buying his University and
the steel mill where he used to learn his trade and then followed it up by
making a billion dollars in the steel industry. We wish him the very best in
his life and in all his ventures.
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